Angela Merkel is a racist, right?

The German Chancellor has come out and said bluntly that "multi-culturalism has failed:"

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel: "lmmigrants should learn to speak German"Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.She said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work, and immigrants needed to do more to integrate - including learning German.

The comments come amid rising anti-immigration feeling in Germany.

A recent survey suggested more than 30% of people believed the country was "overrun by foreigners".

The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for its social benefits.

Germany is not America and has little experience assimilating foreigners while America has been doing it for 300 years. But what Merkel is making clear is that the German/leftist model of celebrating and encouraging the development of the immigrant's culture separate from the host country rather than employing a "melting pot" strategy that has worked so well in America has utterly failed in assimilating the foreign workers who poured into Germany from the 1960's until today.

She is not saying anything different than critics of multi-culturalism here in America who are routinely tarred with the epithet of "racist" for espousing melting pot assimilation, including the necessity of foreigners learning the English language.

So is Merkel a racist or not?

The German Chancellor has come out and said bluntly that "multi-culturalism has failed:"

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel: "lmmigrants should learn to speak German"

She said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work, and immigrants needed to do more to integrate - including learning German.

The comments come amid rising anti-immigration feeling in Germany.

A recent survey suggested more than 30% of people believed the country was "overrun by foreigners".

The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for its social benefits.

Germany is not America and has little experience assimilating foreigners while America has been doing it for 300 years. But what Merkel is making clear is that the German/leftist model of celebrating and encouraging the development of the immigrant's culture separate from the host country rather than employing a "melting pot" strategy that has worked so well in America has utterly failed in assimilating the foreign workers who poured into Germany from the 1960's until today.

She is not saying anything different than critics of multi-culturalism here in America who are routinely tarred with the epithet of "racist" for espousing melting pot assimilation, including the necessity of foreigners learning the English language.